Military

Further Reading

Chu-SAM

The New Medium Range Surface-to-Air MissileSystem (Chu-SAM), as the replacement of the Improved Hawk System, will provide overall air defense coverage over army operation areas to protect units and facilities. This missile will be precisely guided to the target by the combination of pre-programmed navigation, up-to-date command link, and active radar homing.

The Hawk has been used for more than 30 years with a succession of model changes. The new Chu-SAM is intended to feature a balance of such interconnected elements as a strong warhead to destroy aircraft, air-to-surface missiles [ASM], and cruise missiles, a launch system allowing its use anywhere, automation to reduce greatly the number of operators required, compact size made possible by high integration technology and a good life-cycle cost. The major technologies will include jamming-resistant radar to play the role of multiple eyes with a single unit applying the special signal processing being implemented in the field of communications and a guidance method with which the missile tracks its target by emitting its own radio signals. In addition, as one of the most important features, the new Chu-SAM should have the capability to deal with over-the-horizon [OTH] firing, which is suitable for Japan's mountainous topography, instantaneously predicting the location of a target that has disappeared behind a mountain based on topographic information and guiding the missile to the position where the target should be.